Monthly Archives: June 2018

28 JUNE 2018 | GENEVA –Yesterday, 27 June 2018, the conditions for the entry into force of the first legally binding instrument adopted under the WHO FCTC were met, paving the way to eliminate illicit trade of tobacco products

The Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is pleased to announce that with the ratification of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland the necessary number of Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (the Protocol) has been reached for its enter into force in 90 days.

Why You Should Care

Its civil war has turned Libya into the region’s cigarette smuggling leader.

The footage was dramatic — Mutassim Gadhafi, son of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, smoking hours before he was killed in October 2012. But while one part of those images — the Gadhafi family — is now history, another is disturbingly present. Seven years into Libya’s civil war, contraband cigarettes have taken hold of the nation and are fueling the conflict. Even proverbs stand upended. In Libya, where there’s fire, there’s smoke. Lots of it.

The World Trade Organization upheld Australia’s right to require cigarettes to be sold in plain packs without any logos in a landmark case that could usher in a new wave of global tobacco restrictions.

ST. LOUIS • A man from New York was sentenced Monday to seven years and three months in prison for a contraband cigarette conspiracy, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Yakov Pisman, 60, was one of the leaders of the conspiracy and the final defendant of 14 indicted in 2016. The group was accused of conspiring over four years to buy cigarettes in low cigarette tax markets like St. Louis and Atlanta and transport them to New York, which has high taxes, prosecutors said. More than $56 million in illegal profits were then laundered through the conspirators and their associated companies, prosecutors said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Stein is prosecuting the case on behalf of the government. Homeland Security Investigations, the Frederick County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and the West Virginia State Police led the inquiry.